Elizabeth Caldwell doesn’t feel emotions . . . she sees them. Longing, Shame, and Courage materialize around her classmates. Fury and Resentment appear in her dysfunctional home. They’ve all given up on Elizabeth because she doesn’t succumb to their touch. All, that is, save one—Fear. He’s intrigued by her, as desperate to understand the accident that changed Elizabeth’s life as she is herself.

Elizabeth and Fear both sense that the key to her past is hidden in the dream paintings she hides in the family barn. But a shadowy menace has begun to stalk her, and try as she might, Elizabeth can barely avoid the brutality of her life long enough to uncover the truth about herself. When it matters most, will she be able to rely on Fear to save her?

Some Quiet Place started off really strong, with a very strange and intriguing idea. Elizabeth Cadwill is protected from emotions that humans usually feel, from Fear, Jealousy, Joy, Courage, to Hatered. Something else that sets her from people is that she can see these emotions in the form of people. Not only that, but she sees elements too, whether it is storm, wind, or even willow. I found this idea so interesting especially in that Elizabeth isn't affected at all by emotions, kind of hard to imagine right? I was worried in how I would actually be able to connect to Elizabeth but I didn't have to worry.

However, this book is not free from issues. The biggest issue I had is that at some parts Elizabeth DOES have emotions, one specifically is curiosity, which she regards as not an emotion.. but then, at one point in the novel she sees curiosity. So now I'm like "Is it an emotion or not??". Also, for someone who shouldn't care about anything, she seemed very invested in finding out what happened to her past, as well as a certain boy in her school. If you disregard that point, I think you would really appreciate the way Elizabeth was trying to fit in between people, acting happy, concerned, and as a caring friend to Maggie, her cancer ridden "friend".

One character that is prominent in the story that I loved was Fear.. yes the Fear, THE person that brings fear to all of us. He is so invested in finding out why Elizabeth is like that but you can't help but feel that he cares for her too (oh yea, romantic plot line? check!). Something else that bothered me in this novel is that the climax came a bit too soon.. maybe 60 pages before the book finished? after that point I have to admit I grew restless waiting for the story to wrap up and end. I even started skimming to get to that ending. I grew a bit tired of the flashbacks and wished we got the explanation in one go, not over the course of the 60 pages. All in all,Some Quiet Place was an enjoyable book. I personally enjoyed the first half more than the second but had fun with the plot line and the ideas behind it. If you are a paranormal fan I would suggest you check it out and see for yourself!

16 comments:

I'm really intrigued by the premise of this book :) I guess it's going to be a challenge for the author to invoke any sort of feeling from me with a character that doesn't feel, so I guess it was inevitable that at some point she had to incorporate that into the story :D This was a great review Juhina!

This is SUCH a great concept for a novel. So it's too bad it sounds like it wasn't executed very well. I am at least impressed that it wasn't impossible to connect with someone who couldn't feel emotion!

I agree with everyone, this one has a great concept but it sounds like it wasn't fully fleshed out. Poor execution, indeed. I feel like it would be frustrating having a main character with no emotions.

While it does sound like an interesting idea for a book, I feel as if it'd have been better if the execution was done properly. However, I'm intrigued as how can a reader connect to such a main character.

It doesn't matter how many times I see this cover it creeps me out every time. Still the concept of this story sounds really good and I'm really curious about it. Also it's a bit ironical that the person who wasn't supposed to have feelings has one of the most annoying. Great review :)

I was a huge fan of Fear as well Juhina! He was the most interesting aspect of this story for me - I sometimes wanted to hug him and other times wanted to hit him for playing his games with Elizabeth. I found the whole premise to be really interesting, but there were definitely a few flaws and this will not be a book for everyone. Glad you enjoyed it for the most part, loved your review:)

If I remember correctly, I rated this one 3 out of 5 stars too. I was impressed with the originality of the concept like you were but I just had a really hard time connecting to Elizabeth. It kind of fell flat for me too by the end and I don't know, I just didn't LOVE it as much as I had hoped. Fabulous review Junina :)